Candidates Tournament Round 1

The 2013 Candidates Tournament got underway in London today, not exactly with a bang, but at least a certain spark - although that might have been the server for the official website going up in smoke! Such an occurance is depressingly predictable in the opening round of major chess events, but at least the website got back on-line eventually. Hopefully, there will be no more problems during the rest of the competition!

The pairings for the opening round gave Lev Aronian white against Magnus Carlsen, so fireworks were expected immediately. In the event, Aronian could make no impression on Carlsen's choice of the Bogo-Indian and the game was drawn after 31 moves in a perfectly symmetrical position. A good start for Carlsen, holding one of his nearest rivals to a draw with ease.

Carlsen waits before his game starts...

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...and attracts a gaggle of photographers.

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The early moves...but the game is destined for a draw.

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Next to finish was the game between Peter Svidler and Vladimir Kramnik. The players avoided heavy theory - Kramnik started by playing the relatively unusual 4...Nxd5, and Svidler answered with the prophylactic sideline 7.a3. Svidler felt very happy with his position out of the opening, and was disappointed to draw, "You get a position as good as this against Vladimir out of the opening and you feel, wow - how good is this? - and yet I can't point out a mistake (that I made) as such". The game ended in a repetition after 23 moves.

Peter Svidler focuses his mind before the game...

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...but Vladimir Kramnik was able to hold for a draw.

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Boris Gelfand and Teimour Radjabov had an interesting and balanced encounter, but once again the points were shared.

The ceremonial opening move was made by FIDE President Kirsan Illyumzhinov

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The last game to finish provided some excitement as the time control approached: take two inveterate zeitnot addicts and a time control without increments until move 60 and you have a recipe for a blitz finish! True to form, the players got into a time scramble, but when the dust cleared a drawn king and pawn endgame resulted.

A smile for the camera from Vassily Ivanchuk?

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Alexander Grischuk

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Round two tomorrow sees Magnus Carlsen with the white pieces against Vladimir Kramnik. The full pairings are below. Will there be blood spilt in round two?

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A view of the playing arena

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The 2013 Candidates Tournament runs from 14 March - 2 April in London, with the winner earning the right to challenge current world champion Vishy Anand for the title.

The tournament is an 8-player double round-robin event and the venue is The IET at 2 Savoy Place on the banks of the river Thames. The total prize fund is €510,000 (approx 665,000 USD).

All rounds start at 14:00 GMT, and the time control is 2 hours for 40 moves, then an extra hour added for the next 20 moves, then 15 minutes more with a 30 second increment to finish.

ptrckmackay: The stakes at Zurich were nowhere near what they are here. Two of the players were simply aiming to get in form while play the best enterprising chess they could (remember Kramnik's choice of openings) -- in case they need to switch to this mode here, when they absolutely need to seek wins. The other two players (Anand and Caruana) each had to prove something: Anand to himself that he can do well even among the elite once again, and Caruana that he can win even at this level and get back to where he was before his Tata Steel's not-so-good performance. So the choice of players and their individual goals were quite different from what we have in this Candidates Tournament now.

So the comparison is just impossible because the incentives and stakes are fundamentally different, and so are most of the players.

You have a point, however, that the soccer scoring system 3-1-0 can contribute to a bit more enterprising attitudes by players occasionally. There is no immediate known downside to it, and it has been more or less confirmed over many tournaments in achieving this goal of higher scoring: the difference isn't huge, but it exists. Still, even then it's up to the players to decide if the potential extra point is worth the risks that they'll be taking -- at their level you can't win without taking a risk (or your opponent blundering, which you can't really count on either), and the risk can turn into a very real 0 on the scoreboard, if miscalculated.

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